While some medications prescribed to patients may be taken only for a brief period of time, other medications may be taken for extended periods of time. For convenience, when a doctor prescribes a medication that will be taken over an extended period, the doctor may write the prescription such that a pharmacy can refill the prescription one or more times without requiring renewed authorization from the doctor (i.e., without requiring a new prescription). When a patient runs out of the prescribed medication (or slightly before), the patient may contact the pharmacy at which the prescription was originally filled and request a refill, if there are any refills remaining. Of course, if no refills remain, a pharmacist at the pharmacy may contact the doctor to request a new prescription for the same medication without involving the patient.
Pharmacies have implemented internet-based interfaces (e.g., web sites) through which a patient could request a refill. To access the web pages through which prescription refills may be requested, a patient must be logged into a user profile. Generally, though not always, the user profile is associated with only one person, and the user can order refills only of the prescriptions associated with his profile. Some systems allow for a profile to be associated with multiple people (e.g., family members, patients in the charge of a caregiver, etc.), but this requires additional configuration steps that must be performed in advance, such as sending and responding to requests for permission, that often must be coordinated between multiple people.
In any event, the systems currently in place require a user who wishes to order a prescription refill to log into the system. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets certain privacy and security standards for protected health information (PHI) transmitted by electronic media. Such standards may require a user name and password to authenticate a user viewing prescription numbers. For some patients, remembering the user name or password may be difficult and, if the patient does not have access to the information, the login requirement may prevent access to the system entirely. Even in cases where the patient knows (or has access to) the user name and password, entering the login information may be an impediment, especially for users attempting to order refills through a mobile device, many of which have input mechanisms that are difficult or, at least, inconvenient to use. Further, logging into the system requires access to a web browser, which may not be readily available to the customer.